Yesterday, I submitted the full and final manuscript of my book to the publisher. After about a year and a half of waking up before dawn nearly every day to write, after several rounds of peer review and revision, after struggling through the incredible, lonely, challenging process of writing, my book is officially done.

It’s titled Thy Will Be Done: George Washington, Slavery, and the Fight for American Memory. It tells the story of Americans’ centuries-long fight over slavery’s proper place in George Washington’s legacy. In it, I explore how generations of Americans—abolitionists, educators, activists, politicians, even Washington’s former slaves and their descendants—have all fought over how to understand Washington’s history with slavery, wielding their interpretation of the past in their efforts to win the arguments of the present.

The book won’t come out until next year—a long process of copyediting, proof reviewing, etc. is still to come—but I’m celebrating that the hardest part is officially over. Researching and writing isn’t my full time job (I work for AASLH, the national professional association that serves history museums) so writing this book meant lots of early mornings writing before my kids woke up and my actual work day began. But about 18 months later, I’ve got a book that’s longer than I expected (about 100,000 words) and that I’m really proud of.

Stay tuned for more! It should be available for pre-order later this fall, and will be published in Spring/Summer 2026 by University of North Carolina Press. Now that I’m done writing it, I’ll share some insights into the process, info about where to get it, and some fascinating finds from the book here periodically over the next year.

Onward!

(A quick editorial note: A few years ago, I started this newsletter as a space to write about big issues in the public history field. Working on my book then took over all my available time, so I abandoned that effort. I’m now using this space for book updates. I hope you’ll stick around!)